putting the pieces together - society of american archivists · putting the pieces together...
TRANSCRIPT
putting the pieces togetherbringing archival tradition to an item focused web
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Intellectual control means knowing what the pieces of an archival collection are, where they come from, and how they fit together.”
‐ James M. O’Toole
putting the pieces togetherarchival tradition?
“The archives cannot be understood without a knowledge of the Administration which produced them.”
‐ Sir Hilary Jenkinson A Manual of Archival Administration
“Arrangement not only affects the accessibility of archives; it also affects their evidential values, for archives must be arranged in a manner that will protect their integrity as historical evidence.”
‐ T. R. SchellenbergModern Archives
"Restoring the coherence that was originally [in a collection] becomes a critical task.“
‐ James M. O’Toole Understanding Archives and Manuscripts
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
how do archivists create this coherence? we:
1. collect meaningful materials within a meaningful focus2. arrange materials according to provenance and original
order3. research collections and author finding aids
but when we digitize on a large scale we:
1. describe at the item‐level2. use systems that provide item‐level access only3. combine all of our digitized material into one system
why? because that’s how the web has been used…
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
putting the pieces togetherarchivists, physical and digitial
premier collection of w. e. b. du bois material, 170 linear feet
scanning everything, 100,000 individual items
MODS for item‐level description
METS for structural metadata
FEDORA repository
Solr for search
Money from the Verizon Foundation and NEH
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
putting the pieces togetherw. e. b. du bois digitization project
goal: keep the hierarchical relationships from the collection’sarrangement intact.
collection
series1 series…
sub‐series1 sub‐series2
items itemsitems
series2
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
putting the pieces togetherour approach
collection view
series view
list view
item view
not so easy…
precedingsucceedingoriginal hostconstituent
allowable <relatedItem> types:seriesotherVersionotherFormatisReferencedBy
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<mods:titleInfo><mods:title>A single item</mods:title>
</mods:titleInfo>
<mods:relatedItem type=“host”><mods:titleInfo>
<mods:title>W. E. B. Du Bois Papers</mods:title></mods:titleInfo>
</mods:relatedItem>
putting the pieces togetherhierarchy with mods?
even harder…
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<mods:titleInfo><mods:title>A single item</mods:title>
</mods:titleInfo>
<mods:relatedItem type=“host”><mods:titleInfo>
<mods:title>Series 1A Correspondence</mods:title></mods:titleInfo>
</mods:relatedItem>
putting the pieces togetherhierarchy with mods?
just plain ridiculous…
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<mods:titleInfo><mods:title>A single item</mods:title>
</mods:titleInfo>
<mods:relatedItem type=“host”><mods:titleInfo>
<mods:title>Series 1A Correspondence</mods:title></mods:titleInfo><mods:relatedItem type=“host”>
<mods:titleInfo><mods:title>W. E. B. Du Bois Papers</mods:title>
</mods:titleInfo></mods:relatedItem>
</mods:relatedItem>
putting the pieces togetherhierarchy with mods?
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
+
putting the pieces togetherour solution
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
putting the pieces togetherwhat is rdf?
subject predicate object
rdf defines relationships using triples:
with fedora’s ontology for defining relationships between digital objects:
item99 isConstituentOf series1
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
putting the pieces togetherrdf in the fedora wilderness
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
is it usable?
does it usefully leverage archival tradition?
could we do better?
putting the pieces togetherdoes this approach work?
Special Collections and University Archives, W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
YES!explore the potential of the web
collocate and link data1
take advantage of new technologiesrdf2, sparql3, augmented reality4
continue to develop archival standardseac, ead, rda, ???
incorporate existing outside standardsfoaf5, relationship6, event7
1. http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData2. http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf‐primer/3. http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf‐sparql‐query/4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality5. http://www.foaf‐project.org/6. http://vocab.org/relationship/7. http://motools.sourceforge.net/event/
putting the pieces togethercould we do better?